“Your people, sir, are nothing but a great beast.”

                                -Alexander Hamilton

Life used to be beautiful for her. It used to bring about dreams and endless possibilities. Life used to give her happiness and comfort in the arms of the people she cared about. None of that mattered anymore, not since she learned the truth.

Maiya stared at the glowing moon as the mild night breeze caressed her cheek. Her fingers played with the silver chain that hung around her neck, a constant reminder of why she had become who she was. The soft rustle of leaves reached her ears and calmed her breathing as she tried to push away her surging emotions.

The sight never left her. She could still feel the weight of her blood-soaked clothes. The smell of Death blinded her senses, pulling her closer into its embrace. The walls were coated in a thick crimson paint, dripping slowly towards the ground. It was the last time she cried; her last moment of ignorance.

She remembered the surreal weight that lay in her arms as she sobbed. The man that had promised to guide her was nothing more than a rotting corpse. His words rang clear in her mind, never fading, always vibrant. “You need to fight,” he said. “You need to defend yourself. I can’t always protect you.”

Maiya remembered the journal he always kept. She knew it was meant for her. He always told her to take it in case anything was to happen. It was as if he knew his meeting with Death would come. Her fingers absently traced the grooves on the book.

His messy scrawl covered every page, the black ink staining the fragile parchment. Every , every dot, contained a message. It gave her a reason to go on, a reason to fight. He had died for her. He had given his life to ensure her safety so that she could do the same for others. He sought the potential buried deep within her soul and drew it out, little by little.

His anecdotes revealed the past that she had forgotten. She had been an experiment, and consequently, had no known relatives. Her companions had been annihilated before they had even drawn their first breath. They were labeled as dangers to the Society, an experiment gone wrong, but she survived. Because of her mentor, she was able to withstand the poison that killed so many of her kind. Because of him, she had become stronger and more powerful than the experiment had predicted.

Anger raced through her body as she thought of him. She owed her life to her mentor, yet she was unable to pay the debt. It had been years since she had lost him to the hands of Fate, but the pain was still unbearable. It had been years since she vowed to avenge him, yet she had come no closer to finding the creature behind the experiments.

Maiya vowed to destroy the Society which created her. She vowed to tear it apart, piece by piece, and make them suffer as she had. Her hatred fueled her with every stride she took. Revenge had fused with her limbs, becoming one with her.

It turned her into a lethal weapon, a monster. The desire for an end, at times, drove her to insanity. Cries echoed in her mind, a faint imprint of her time within the Society. Their pleas for help, for peace, and for deliverance woke her too often in the night. Her fallen friends had become her will to survive.

The intuition had been engrained into every fiber of her being. She was born a killer. In disposing of the other experiments, they made her stronger and faster. Maiya had become what the Society feared most – a deadly weapon, one that would bring about their fall and ultimate destruction. Though she did not realize it, a greater beast slept within her, waiting for its time to wake.

Maiya leaned against a fallen log and tilted her head back. Her eyes had become entranced with the stars. The smiles of her friends stared back at her, twinkling, laughing. Her heart, weighed down with burden, found comfort in their luminous glow. She yearned to be with them. Though they never had the chance to live like she did, she understood them.

They were like her, lost and afraid, uncertain of the future. The children were her past, as she was their future. It broke her heart to walk the path they never had the chance to see. They were like strangers, but somehow, their voices reached out to her; they guided her. Their ambient whispers comforted her. With just a murmur, they calmed her heart. She relied on them. She relied on their strength, for they were the only ones she could wholly trust.

Maiya lay on the soft meadow grass and listened to the soft breeze. Sleep claimed her as the subtle harmonies of her haunting companions lulled her into a peaceful slumber.